New protected areas face increased overlap with humans and reduced overlap with agriculture upon establishment

Effective expansion of protected areas (PAs) is critical for achieving global biodiversity targets, but trade-offs with other socio-economic development goals can affect their effectiveness. With the increasing need to expand PA coverage, it is essential toanticipate the challenges faced by newly established PAs overlapping with existing human activities. Here, we measured the levelsof human population and cropland at the time of PAs establishment, over the course of five decades. We compared the level ofhuman activities between sites selected for PA establishment and control sites using statistical matching and found that PA sitesare generally characterized by lower population density and cropland than control sites. However, trends are changing as morerecent PAs had increased overlap with human population and reduced overlap with agriculture upon establishment, particularlysmall and less strict PAs. Moreover, PA placements in some megadiverse countries, such as Indonesia and Bolivia, showed anincreased overlap with agriculture. Our results suggest that enhanced management of human presence and agriculture withinPAs is increasingly needed to minimize conflict and maximize synergies with human activities.